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Kissing the Sword: A Prison Memoir
by Shahrnush ParsipurA moving account of life as a political prisoner in post-revolutionary Iran from the acclaimed Iranian author of Women Without Men. Shahrnush Parsipur was a successful writer and television producer in her native Iran until the Revolution of 1979. Soon after seizing control, the Islamist government began detaining its citizens—and Parsipur found herself incarcerated without charges. Kissing the Sword captures the surreal experience of serving time as a political prisoner and witnessing the systematic elimination of opposition to fundamentalist power. It is a harrowing narrative filled with both horror and humor: nights blasted by machine gun fire as detainees are summarily executed, days spent debating prison officials on whether the Quran demands that women be covered. Parsipur, one of modern Iran&’s great literary voices, mines her painful life experiences to deliver an urgent call for the most basic of human rights: the freedom of expression. &“Parsipur makes a stylishly original contribution to modern feminist literature.&” —Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis &“Stands as a powerful testament to not only the devastations of an era, but to the integrity and courage of an extraordinary woman.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“Parsipur&’s memoir is a powerful tale of a writer&’s struggle to survive the worst cases of atrocities and injustice with grace and compassion. A terribly dark but truly illuminating narrative; Parsipur forces the reader to question human nature and resilience.&” —Shirin Neshat, artist
Bamboo Shoots After the Rain: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan
by Ann C. Carver, Sung-sheng Yvonne ChangA short story collection hailed as a &“welcome and valuable addition to our growing knowledge about the inner lives and literary talents of Chinese women&” (Amy Ling, author of Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry). This remarkable anthology introduces the short fiction of fourteen writers, major figures in the literary movements of three generations, who represent a range of class, ethnic, and political perspectives. It is filled with unexpected gems such as Lin Hai-yin&’s story of a woman suffering under the feudal system of Old China, and Chiang Hsiao-yun&’s optimistic solutions to problems of the elderly in rapidly changing 1980s Taiwan. And in between, a dozen rich stories of aristocrats, comrades, wives, concubines, children, mothers, sexuality, female initiation, rape, and the tensions between traditional and modern life. &“This is not western feminism with an Asian accent&”, says Bloomsbury Review, &“but a description of one culture&’s reality. . . . The woman protagonists survive both despite and because of their existence in a changing Taiwan.&”
Oyster: A Gastronomic History (with Recipes)
by Drew Smith&“Rich in history, lore, recipes, fascinating images—in short, a delicious book from start to finish&” (Sandy Ingber, Grand Central Oyster Bar). Tracing the oyster&’s role in cooking, art, literature, and politics from the dawn of time to present day, this unique book reveals how oysters have sustained communities financially and ecologically, and have loomed surprisingly large in legend and history. Using the oyster as the central theme, Smith has organized the book around time periods and geographical locations, looking at the oyster&’s influence through colorful anecdotes, eye-opening scientific facts, and a wide array of visuals. The book also includes fifty recipes—traditional country dishes and contemporary examples from some of the best restaurants in the world. Renowned French chef Raymond Blanc calls Oyster &“a brilliant crusade for the oyster that shows how food has shaped our history, art, literature, lawmaking, culture, and of course, love-making and cuisine.&”
Walden x 40: Essays on Thoreau
by Robert B. RayProvocative and illuminating essays on Thoreau&’s masterwork, shedding new light on its enduring inspiration and philosophical depth. In 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved from his parents&’ house in Concord, Massachusetts, to a one-room cabin he built himself on the land of his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. He described his time there, just over two years, as an experiment in &“living deliberately.&” His daily journal entries became the source material for Walden, a masterful meditation on the virtues of simplicity, self-sufficiency, and man&’s relationship to nature. In Walden x 40, Robert B. Ray adopts Thoreau&’s compositional method to explore some of the questions posed in Walden. Drawing connections to the works of poets and philosophers from Wordsworth to Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, and Breton, Ray derives the inspiration for his 40 brief essays by exploring the pages of Walden in the same way Thoreau explored his own life—deliberately.
American Fathers: A Tale of Intrigue, Inspiration, and the Entrepreneurial Spirit
by Ron Schutz Laura BakerAn inspirational modern-day fable about finding success, happiness and the American dream both in business and in life. A smart and level-headed recent college graduate, Sasha thinks he has a good grip on life—until everything goes haywire. His ideal family is shattered when his mom leaves and his dad re-marries. Even more unsettling, Sasha is forced to question his own identity when he starts receiving mysterious messages from a Russian agent claiming to be his biological father. Determined to make his own way, Sasha boldly starts his own business as his enigmatic new father-figure mentors him in the ways of capitalism, personal finance, and starting a new business based on an innovative idea. Follow Sasha on his spiritual journey to his own path among friends who are from different faiths. This fast-moving tale spins an unfolding mystery while offering practical tools for life and businesses.
Girl with Death Mask (Blue Light Books)
by Jennifer GivhanThe prize-winning poet &“crafts a clear-eyed narrative of Latina womanhood in this lovely collection ripe with longing, hope, and broken faith&” (Publishers Weekly). Winner of the Pleiades Editors&’ Prize and Miller Williams Poetry Prize, poet Jennifer Givhan now explores the path from girlhood to womanhood through love, tequila, sex, first periods, late nights, abuse, and heartache. She describes a journey brimming with transformative magic that heals even as it shatters. In four rich movements of poems, Givhan profiles the suffering and the love of a Latina girl who enters motherhood while coming to terms with sexual trauma. Her daughter is a touchstone of healing as she seeks to unravel her own emotions and protect the next generation of women. Givhan uses changing poetic forms to expose what it means to mature in a female body swirling with tenderness, violence, and potential in an uncertain world.
Dear Ashley: A Father's Reflections and Letters to His Daughter on Life, Love and Hope
by Don BlackwellIn this soul-stirring book, a parent offers support, advice, and honest self-examination as his child recovers from a life-threatening eating disorder. Events wholly beyond our control can sometimes abruptly and profoundly interrupt our life journeys and the journeys of those we love. Often, in the face of great physical or emotional trauma, we become paralyzed by fear and uncertainty. Several years ago, one of those events drove Don Blackwell&’s daughter to death&’s doorstep. Thanks to her courage in the midst of suffering, Don realized that such events can also serve as opportunities for reflection and growth. Taking a step back from the heartbreak of the moment and reflecting on the matters of the heart that surround those events, they can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves, of those we love and of the human condition. Dear Ashley is a collection of personal reflections like these, and the intimate father/daughter letters used to convey them—shared in the hope that the unique perspective they offer will provide guidance, understanding, and healing when life&’s challenges inevitably come knocking on your door.
Alva Vanderbilt Belmont: Unlikely Champion of Women's Rights
by Sylvia D. HoffertA fascinating biography of the New York socialite who played a surprising role in the fight for suffrage. Born in the middle of the nineteenth century, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was known to be domineering, temperamental, and opinionated. She married two millionaires, and pressured her daughter to wed an aristocrat. This resolve to get her own way regardless of the consequences stood her in good stead when she joined the American woman suffrage movement in 1909. Thereafter, she used her wealth, her administrative expertise, and her social celebrity to help convince Congress to pass the 19th Amendment and then to persuade the exhausted leaders of the National Woman&’s Party to initiate a worldwide equal rights campaign. In this book, Sylvia D. Hoffert argues that Belmont was a feminist visionary and that her financial support was crucial to the success of the suffrage and equal rights movements. She also shows how Belmont&’s activism, and the money she used to support it, enriches our understanding of the personal dynamics of the American woman&’s rights movement. Drawing upon and analyzing Belmont&’s own memoirs, she illustrates how this determined woman went about the complex and collaborative process of creating her public self. &“Engaging . . . Highly recommended.&” —Choice
Reply All: Stories (Break Away Bks.)
by Robin HemleyA &“touching and funny&” story collection full of &“sympathetic characters who are deeply flawed but just as deeply human&”(Booklist). Reply All, the third volume of award-winning and widely anthologized short stories by Robin Hemley, takes a humorous, edgy, and frank look at the human art of deception and self-deception. A father accepts, without question, the many duplicate saint relics that appear in front of his cave every day; a translator tricks Magellan by falsely translating a local chief&’s words of welcome; an apple salesman a long way from home thinks he&’s fallen in love; a search committee believes in its own righteous nobility when it hires a minority writer; a cheating couple broadcasts a not-so-secret affair to an entire listserv; a talk show host interviews the dead and hopes to learn their secrets. Humans fool themselves in infinite ways, and these stories illustrate this sad fact in excruciating detail, knowing commiseration, and blushing recognition. &“Laugh-out-loud funny and achingly sad and deeply in touch with the profound humanity underneath the increasingly bizarre surface of our culture.&” —Robert Olen Butler, author of Good Scent from a Strange Mountai
The Glimpse Traveler (Break Away Bks.)
by Marianne BoruchA stunning, poetic memoir &“that will transport readers to a time when a nation&’s youth searched for meaning against the backdrop of the Vietnam War&” (Publishers Weekly). When she joins a pair of hitchhikers on a trip to California, a young Midwestern woman embarks on a journey of memory, beauty, and realization. This true story, set in 1971, recounts a fateful, nine-day trip into the American counterculture that begins on a whim and quickly becomes a mission to unravel a tragic mystery. The narrator&’s path leads her to Berkeley, San Francisco, Mill Valley, Big Sur, and finally to an abandoned resort motel that has become a down-on-its-luck commune in the desert of southern Colorado. The Glimpse Traveler describes with wry humor and deep feeling what it was like to witness a peculiar and impossibly rich time. &“A perceptive, engaging, intimate chronicle of the early 1970s, the road-weary hippie hitchhikers, the anti-war sentiment, the dope-induced haze. Boruch . . . captures this very specific, significant time and place with exquisite clarity and lyric detail and description.&” —Dinty Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire
Step Up!: How to Win More and Lose Less in Business!
by Daniel GrissomA real-world business guide to getting ahead of the competition—and staying there: &“I recommend you read this book!&” (Tim Armstrong, president, advertising & commerce, Google). Making it big in business today means never staying satisfied with things as they are. You must always look to the future. After all, it&’s a guarantee that your competition has stepped up, so why wouldn&’t you? In Step Up! Daniel Grissom explains the six vital steps to business success. He identifies critical challenges facing sellers—and the streetwise strategies for overcoming them. He shows you how to work smarter, not harder, and even includes a collection of &“classic quotes&” from other leaders in the field of excellence. The rich content of this unique guide is the result of many years of research, interviews and personal experience. So, the advice is not mere theory . . . it&’s the real deal on results! Are you ready to kick your company to the next level? Then get ready to Step Up!
Virginia Woolf & Music
by Adriana Varga&“A truly comprehensive, multi-perspective, and up-to-date survey of the undeniable role of music in Woolf &’s life and writings&” (Music and Letters). Through Virginia Woolf's diaries, letters, fiction, and the testimony of her contemporaries, this fascinating volume explores the inspiration and influences of music—from classical through mid-twentieth century—on the preeminent Modernist author of Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, A Room of One&’s Own, and other masterful compositions. In a letter to violinist Elizabeth Trevelyan, Woolf revealed: &“I always think of my books as music before I write them.&” In a journal entry she compared herself to an &“improviser with [my] hands rambling over the piano.&“ Approaching the author&’s career from a unique perspective, Virginia Woolf and Music examines her musical background; music in her fiction and her own critical writings on the subject; its importance in the Bloomsbury milieu; and its role within the larger framework of aesthetics, politics, gender studies, language, and Modernism. Illuminating the rich nature of Woolf's works, these essays from scores of literary and music scholars are &“a fascinating and important contribution to scholarship about Virginia Woolf, music, and interdisciplinary art&” (Music Reference Services Quarterly).
The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History
by Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, EditorsA &“well-reasoned and timely&” (Booklist) essay collection interrogates the Lost Cause myth in Civil War historiography. Was the Confederacy doomed from the start in its struggle against the superior might of the Union? Did its forces fight heroically against all odds for the cause of states&’ rights? In reality, these suggestions are an elaborate and intentional effort on the part of Southerners to rationalize the secession and the war itself. Unfortunately, skillful propagandists have been so successful in promoting this romanticized view that the Lost Cause has assumed a life of its own. Misrepresenting the war&’s true origins and its actual course, the myth of the Lost Cause distorts our national memory. In The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, nine historians describe and analyze the Lost Cause, identifying ways in which it falsifies history—creating a volume that makes a significant contribution to Civil War historiography. &“The Lost Cause . . . is a tangible and influential phenomenon in American culture and this book provides an excellent source for anyone seeking to explore its various dimensions.&” —Southern Historian
It Was Never About the Ketchup!: The Life and Leadership Secrets of H. J. Heinz
by Steve LentzThe inspiring life of the visionary food mogul whose last name has become synonymous with America&’s favorite condiment. In a world that has become increasingly complex, complicated and impersonal, it is easy to feel that each of our individual lives is relatively insignificant. But nothing could be further from the truth. Every life is unique! Each of us is created with the potential to make this world a better place because of our presence in it! The life of H. J. Heinz can inspire each of us to live a life that makes a difference. What makes his life so inspiring to me is his love for the common—the common place, the common man, today&’s common tasks and work. H. J. Heinz built an empire by doing common things uncommonly well! In the process, he left his mark in this world and left a legacy—a fortune—for generations to come. But his focus was never on his fortune. It never was about the ketchup!
Catapulted: How Great Leaders Succeed Beyond Their Experience
by Dave JenningsReach beyond your own personal experience and knowledge and rise faster and farther with this &“engaging and practical&” leadership guide (Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). Being an effective leader means making decisions. But many of those decisions may pertain to situations or information you aren&’t be familiar with. What is a leader to do then? You have to make choices about the future for yourself, your team, and your organization. You need to get your team aligned in the same direction while building key relationships both internally and externally. And, you have to do all this while you maintain your sanity among competing demands. Leadership expert Dave Jennings doesn&’t ask you to change your leadership skill set. He invites you to change your mind set about how you approach life when you are in over your head—sometimes way over your head. Catapulted is a &“great read&” that will provide you with the tools to succeed in situations that go beyond your comfort zone. Get ready to fly (Gary Bowen, chief financial officer, OGIO International).
Billion-Dollar Branding: Brand Your Small Business Like a Big Business and Make Great Things Happen
by Honey Parker Blaine ParkerTwo advertising veterans explain the myths about branding—and how even the smallest businesses can benefit by defining themselves to their customers. Branding may be the single most misunderstood concept in marketing. It&’s not only for big businesses with big bucks. It&’s not about a logo, a color, a font, or a type of advertising. Branding is defining a company&’s image in such a way that the customer is left with a single feeling about that business and what they do. Branding is about finding a business&’s juicy center. Even small businesses on shoestring budgets and sole practitioners can learn the principles of good branding—an effort that encompasses not just messaging, but multiple day-to-day decisions that shape and build your customers&’ perceptions and emotions. With numerous real-life examples and the expertise that comes only from experience, this book guides you to a new way of thinking about your business, and the kind of wisdom that no amount of money can buy.
The King of Halloween & Miss Firecracker Queen: A Daughter's Tale of Family and Football
by Lori LeachmanIn this memoir of a Southern childhood, football is a family&’s salvation—and its destruction. The King of Halloween & Miss Firecracker Queen tells the story of a football life from a daughter&’s perspective. Chronicling a rise through the competitive ranks—from high school to college to professional coaching, and ultimately a Super Bowl championship—it also reveals the struggle to deal with the decline and death of the patriarch, Lamar Leachman, from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as a result of that life. With forewords by NFL legends Phil Simms and Harry Carson, this is a true story of one family&’s love for a game and for each other, one man&’s strength of character, one woman&’s love that sustained him.
Written in Blood: The Battles for Fortress Przemyl in WWI (Twentieth-Century Battles)
by Graydon A. TunstallThe Tomlinson Prize–winning, &“stimulating and informative&” account of one of the most significant clashes on the Eastern Front of the Great War (Journal of Military History). Bloodier than Verdun, the battles for Fortress Przemyl in present-day Poland were pivotal to victory on the Eastern Front during the early years of World War I. Control of the fortress changed hands three times during the fall of 1914. In 1915, the Austro-Hungarian armies launched three major offensives to penetrate the Russian encirclement and relieve the 120,000 people trapped in the besieged fortress. Drawing on myriad sources, historian Graydon A. Tunstall tells of the impossible conditions facing the garrison: starvation, &“horse-meat&” diets, deplorable medical care, prostitution, alcoholism, dismal morale, and a failed breakout attempt. By the time the fortress finally fell to the Russians on March 22, 1915, the Hapsburg Army had sustained 800,000 casualties; the Russians, over a million. The fortress, however, had served its purpose. Tunstall argues that the besieged garrison kept the Russian army from advancing farther and obliterating the already weakening Austro-Hungarian forces at the outset of the War to End All Wars. The World War I Historical Association awarded Written in Blood the 2016 Tomlinson Prize.
Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens: Women and Subversion during World War I
by Kathleen KennedyA concise and highly readable study of women&’s influence on a crucial era in American political and cultural history. Kathleen Kennedy&’s unique study explores the arrests, trials, and defenses of women charged under the Wartime Emergency Laws passed soon after the US entered World War I. These women, often members of the political left, whose anti-war or pro-labor activity brought them to the attention of federal officials, made up ten percent of the approximately two thousand Federal Espionage cases. Their trials became important arenas in which women&’s relationships and obligations to national security were contested and defined. Anti-radical politics raised questions about the state&’s role in defining motherhood and social reproduction. Kennedy shows that state authorities often defined women&’s subversion as a violation of their maternal roles. Yet, with the exception of Kate Richards O&’Hare, the women charged with sedition did not define their political behavior within the terms set by maternalism. Instead, they used liberal arguments of equality, justice, and democratic citizenship to argue for their right to speak frankly about American policy. Such claims, while often in opposition to strategies outlined by their defense teams, helped form the framework for modern arguments made in defense of civil liberties.
The Last Studebaker: A Novel (Break Away Bks.)
by Robin HemleyIn this novel of a woman in search of the meaning of family, &“Hemley draws a quirky, droll road map of the human heart, with all its foibles and dangers&” (Publishers Weekly). In 1963, when Lois Kulwicki&’s father loses his job at Studebaker along with hundreds of other workers, he acts as if he has just been promoted. He buys a new car (the only non-Studebaker he&’s ever purchased) and takes his family on vacation. On the way home, Mom dumps Dad at a Stuckey&’s, and that&’s the last they see of him. Thirty years later, Lois has a family of her own, as fractured as her childhood family. Divorced but still living with her ex, she decides to move out with her two daughters and start over. But then a stranger named Henry enters their lives. As they create their own ersatz family, Lois tries to recover something of what she lost, beginning with a search for her abandoned father. The Last Studebaker is a heartfelt comic tale of lives changed forever, after the last Studebaker rolled off of the assembly line in South Bend, Indiana. &“[Hemley] has infused just the right amount of humor and pathos into his exploration of how people discover and maintain connections in these bewildering times.&” —The New York Times Book Review
Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History (Encounters: Explorations in Folklore and Ethnomusicology)
by Charles J. HalperinThis revelatory study of Russian medieval history and the age of Mongolian conquest &“infuses the subject with fresh insights and interpretations&” (History). In the 13th century, a Mongolian confederation known as The Golden Horde dominated a vast region including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the Caucuses. Though it would hold power into the 15th century, the influence of the Mongolian Empire on Russian history and culture has been all but ignored. Only in recent years have historians, archeologists, and philologists started to shed much needed light on this significant period of Mongol rule. In this enlightening new study, historian Charles Halperin assesses these recent findings to provide a comprehensive view of this chapter in Russian medieval history, offering a new interpretation of what role the Mongols played in the story of Russia. A Selection of the History Book Club&“Combining rigorous analysis of the major scholarly findings with his own research, Halperin has produced both a much-needed synthesis and an important original work." –Library Journal
The Runaway Prophet: A Novel
by Michele ChynowethAn ad man is enlisted to stop a terrorist plot in a contemporary spin on the Bible story of Jonah that &“will keep you riveted&” (Delaware Today Magazine). Rory Justice leads a relatively normal life as a conservative, divorced, middle-aged executive for an ad agency. Until a deathbed wish by his father, a retired FBI agent, upends his calm world. He&’s been asked to hand-deliver a sealed letter to the Las Vegas sheriff&’s department. It details plans of a catastrophic act of terror: an underground nuclear bomb ready to be detonated in Sin City by a mad and ingenious band of extremists. His instinct is to run. But seeing his mission to the end is providence. Joining forces with the FBI and police lieutenant Susan McAfree, Rory is suddenly thrust into a life for which his he woefully unprepared. With only a matter of days to help uproot the insidious terrorists, and find the bomb, Rory is drawn deeper into a serpentine world of corruption, conspiracy, and impending catastrophe from which there may be no escape. And time is running out.
Ready, Set, Achieve!: A Guide to Taking Charge of Your Life Creating Balance, and Achieving Your Goals
by Yuri Diogenes Jodi MillerAn organized guide to turning a dream into a reality without sacrificing achievements in other areas of life. Studies have shown that personal health directly affects professional well-being and vice versa. As one decreases, the other suffers. Conversely, as one increases, the other rises as well. By learning how to effectively and evenly pull the strings of both aspects of life—avoiding a collision of priorities—all goals can be reached with less stress and better health. Ready, Set, Achieve! digs into the psyche of setting a goal, creating a plan of action, carrying out those action steps, finding support systems, and cycling back around to do it all over again for a new and higher goal. Personal anecdotes from authors Yuri Diogenes and Jodi Miller punctuate each chapter and give an inside view into overcoming their own struggles and turning them into tangible success stories. Both authors rely on real-life experience to shed light on how to transform one&’s mind and body and still create balance. Diogenes shares the tale of his amazing 100-pound weight loss and subsequent appearance on a national-qualifying bodybuilding stage in one of the biggest states in the country, while rising to the top ranks in his IT career. And Miller describes her feat of lifting almost three times her bodyweight at national- and world-level lifting championships, while remaining well rounded in both her athletic and career worlds. Ready, Set, Achieve! shows the road to just that: being your overall best.
Anonymous No More: One Mother's Faith-Filled Journey Through Addiction, Recovery & Redemption
by Alisa MasseyThe inspiring, heartfelt story of one mother&’s faith-filled journey through addiction and recovery . . . to finally find redemption in God&’s grace. Alcohol and drugs took away what mattered most in this mother&’s life . . . and a once promising future came to an abrupt halt as her addiction forced her into seclusion. Although she hoped to escape the entrapment of her drug dependence, the road to sobriety seemed full of unexpected road blocks and dead ends. Her situation seemed inescapable, but she would ultimately find the one true way to escape—and that way would supply her with everlasting life. Before the dangerous habits could do her in, her cry for help was heard and God placed this woman in the perfect hands so she could learn to live again. Discovering her identity in Christ, she became anonymous no more.
The Battle for Manchuria and the Fate of China: Siping, 1946 (Twentieth-Century Battles)
by Harold M. Tanner&“A well-organized and excellently researched work&” (H-War) on one of the crucial battles of China&’s civil war. In the spring of 1946, Communists and Nationalist Chinese were battled for control of Manchuria and supremacy in the civil war. The Nationalist attack on Siping ended with a Communist withdrawal, but further pursuit was halted by a ceasefire brokered by the American general, George Marshall. Within three years, Mao Zedong&’s troops had captured Manchuria and would soon drive Chiang Kai-shek&’s forces off the mainland. Did Marshall, as Chiang later claimed, save the Communists and determine China&’s fate? Putting the battle into the context of the military and political struggles fought, Harold M. Tanner casts light on all sides of this historic confrontation and shows how the outcome has been, and continues to be, interpreted to suit the needs of competing visions of China&’s past and future. &“A genuine addition to our knowledge about this battle and the Chinese civil war in general.&” —Mark Wilkinson, Virginia Military Institute